Clinical Haematology

Overview Pancytopaenia refers to a decrease in all peripheral blood cell lines. Pancytopaenia broadly refers to a decrease in the cell lines of the peripheral blood. It is said to occur when the laboratory values of the three major cell lines are low including red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), and platelets. Haemoglobin and neutrophils are commonly used are surrogate markers of RBC and WBC lines, respectively. Pancytopaenia is present when: Haemoglobin: < 115 g/L (women), < 130 g/L (men) Leucocytes: < 4.0 x109/L OR Neutrophils: < 1.5 x 109/L Platelets: < 150 x109/L NOTE: the exact values may differ depending

Overview Lymphadenopathy essentially refers to lymph nodes with abnormal consistency or size. Lymphadenopathy is a very broad term that simply refers to the disease of lymph nodes. The term is used to represent a change in size or consistency of a lymph node. The two most common causes of lymphadenopathy are infection and malignancy. Lymphadenopathy may be peripheral or visceral: Peripheral: lymph nodes located in areas close to the skin that can be palpated when enlarged (e.g. neck, axilla, groin) Visceral: lymph nodes located inside the body at deep locations, usually in association with major organs (e.g. mesenteric lymph nodes, hilar